Oil industry insider Matt Simmons blew the whistle on the made-for-TV
capping of the so-called oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico Thursday, July
15, during an interview on KPFK radio, the NPR station in Los Angeles.

Simmons, former energy adviser to the second President Bush, explained
that according to his reading of the data from NOAA, the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, capping of the so-called riser
and the subsequent announcement by U.S. President Obama was "the
biggest con job we've ever seen."

Simmons, creator of an investment bank catering to oil companies, told
radio host Ian Masters that the real problem continuing to gush oil
into the Gulf was not the 6-inch "riser" that apparently has been
capped amid much TV hoopla, but that an open hole or cauldron perhaps
up to 10 miles distant from where British Petroleum's cameras are
focused which continues to spew 120,000 BARRELS per day, and that BP's
much publicized effort to drill relief wells in what the company says
is an effort to stop the flow of oil is nothing but a cynical
publicity stunt.

"The dimensions of this lie are beyond belief," said Simmons,
explaining that the idea of a relief well is "tricky at best," since
trying to hit a pipe of less than a foot in diameter 35,000 feet below
the surface of the Gulf may be entirely futile because the casing of
the original pipe is not even there, having blown away at some point.

But Simmons noted that both BP and Obama continue to deny that this
open hole, or cauldron, even exists, even though Simmons and others
insist the NOAA data from satellites prove by speed of flow and depth
of light that the amount of oil that has been flowing through the
on-camera riser could not possibly account for the amount of oil that
has spilled into the Gulf.

"The riser is totally irrelevant," Simmons stressed, adding "and
there's no way to cap the open hole." He explained that BP continues
to deny the open hole exists and theorizes the continuing flow of oil
into the Gulf is really just the residue from what has already been
spilled during the first 90 days of the disaster.

"There is denial that there's even a problem," Simmons said. "In about
a month or two people will realize that this actually was the biggest
con job we've ever seen."

Simmons also noted an additional danger. "What the researchers now
believe is that basically is that between 4000 and 4500 below the
ocean floor lies an oil lake that's somewhere between 100 and 120
miles wide and it's about 4500 feet deep. It's this toxic waste and
crude and it's releasing methane gases that are absolutely lethal
which is why all the fish and dolphins and sharks and whales are
dying. And workers too, which is why so many have gotten sick, or
maybe really sick.

"The health problems are so serious," Simmons said. "When you inhale
methane you just die."